Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past (Sexuality Studies) (10 page)

Figure 2.1 (above). Portrait of Jefferson. (Thomas Jefferson. Rembrandt Peale, 1800. White
House Historical Association.)

N APRIL 12, 2001, President George W.Bush invited both the black
descendants of the Herrings family and the white descendants
of the Jefferson family to the White House to commemorate the
258th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson (Figure 2.1). Speaking in
the East Room at the White House, to the multiracial crowd that had assembled, he noted that "America sees itself in Thomas Jefferson."' This type of
gathering would have been unthinkable only a short time ago-for generations, the Herrings family was prevented from attending Jefferson family
events. Even today, the view of Jefferson as founder of a multiracial family is
contested. But on that day in 2001, the president's words in America's White
House indicated just how much things have changed.

Second only to George Washington, Jefferson ranks consistently as one
of the most popular and revered of the political leaders of the early Republic.2 Jefferson, of course, authored the Declaration of Independence-a
document that not only gave political birth to the nation but also captured
its very essence with the preamble's articulation of "unalienable Rights" of equality and "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." He is also celebrated for doubling the size of the young nation through the Louisiana
Purchase and for exploring the West with the famed Lewis and Clark expedition. His face adorns the nickel, his head is on Mount Rushmore (along
with that of Washington, the only other Founding Father), and his marble
monument is one of the top tourist destinations in Washington, D.C.

As if to compensate for Jefferson's very developed philosophical sensibilities, his earliest biographers emphasize love and devotion in his relationships
with women. In the Victorian era, this approach meant focusing primarily
on his marriage, portraying him as a chaste widower after his wife died in
1782 at the age of thirty-three. By the twentieth century, given the increased
emphasis on the centrality of sexual urges, a more passionate Jefferson was
remembered, and increasingly he was portrayed as a man who had a variety of intimate relationships with women before and after his marriage. Of
course, some of these interactions were presented as scandals in the hands
of detractors. But biographers, tending to place their subject in a favorable
light, have almost always, however, emphasized how such interactions reveal
a less cerebral side of Jefferson.

Today, Jefferson is publicly reremembered as the man who had a thirtyeight-year romantic relationship with his slave Sally Herrings and as the father
of her seven children. The new Jefferson has been identified as Hemings's
lover not only in a range of widely viewed media, including as the butt of
jokes in passing references in popular films, such as Scary Movie (when students at a high school gather beneath a statue of Jefferson surrounded by
his African American children), but also, more seriously, through portrayals
with sustained focus in best-selling novels, National Book Award-winning
histories, and popular television movies.' If we look back at how Americans
have remembered Jefferson's intimate life, we can see that the Herrings story,
for many, is now the latest in a number of romances that have made this
intellectual Founder more accessible to many Americans; Jefferson's enduring
stature is the greatest testament to the resilience of the Founders in American
national identity and the significant role that sexual personalizing can play in
securing favor, even in the face of controversy. Indeed, for some, his relationship with an enslaved woman bolsters a new perception of him as being ahead
of his time, and for some, he has even emerged as a "multicultural hero."

In His Lifetime

Jefferson was born in 1743 and died, remarkably, on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of his famous Declaration. Like Washington, Jefferson was a Virginia gentleman. He attended the College of William and Mary and
became a lawyer. He served as Virginia delegate to the Second Continental
Congress and at thirty-three authored the Declaration of Independence. He
was the second governor of Virginia and served as the nation's first secretary of state (under Washington), as the second vice president (under John
Adams), and as the third president.'

In his lifetime, two stories were told about Jefferson's relationships with
women outside his marriage, both from political enemies who used the
media to attack their opponent. In the first instance, Jefferson was romantically linked to Betsey Walker, the wife of a neighbor and friend, John. The
story largely came from rumors in the press in 1802, with most additional
information from an 1805 letter from John Walker to Jefferson's political
enemy Henry (Light-Horse Harry) Lee. In the letter, Walker claims that
during the summer of 1768, he had left his wife and child on official business, entrusting the still-unmarried Jefferson to look after them. During the
four months of his absence, Jefferson's "conduct to Mrs W was improper
so much so as to have laid the foundation of her constant objection to my
leaving Mr J my exct telling me that she wondered why I could place such
confidence in him." He also describes two other occasions when Jefferson
tried to convince her of "the innocence of promiscuous love."5

In the second instance, a political hack also first broke public silence on
the sexual relationship between Jefferson and his slave Herrings. Herrings
was born in bondage in Shadwell, Virginia, in 1773 and died in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1835. She came to Monticello as the inherited property of
Martha Jefferson, Thomas's wife. Martha's father was alleged to also be Sally
Hemings's father. Herrings was his until he died and his slaves passed to
Martha, less than two years after she had married Thomas. At Monticello,
the Herrings family enjoyed a privileged status relative to the hundreds of
other slaves, with virtually all of the Herrings family being consigned to
house labor and therefore receiving better treatment.

The story initially appears in print in the Federalist newspaper the
Recorder in 1802. The article entitled "The President, Again" was authored
by James Callender and published in Richmond. Callender was a partisan
writer who had fallen out of favor with Jefferson. Angry by the perceived
betrayal, he broke the silence on Jefferson's relationship with Herrings. "It is
well known that the man, whom it delighteth the people to honor," he writes,
"keeps, and for many years has kept, as his concubine, one of his slaves. Her
name is SALLY. The name of her eldest son is Tom. His features are said to
bear a striking although sable resemblance to those of the president himself."
"By this wench Sally," he declares, "our president has had several children. There is not an individual in the neighbourhood of Charlottesville who does
not believe the story; and not a few who know it."6

In response, a number of articles appeared in newspapers across the
country, some denouncing the report as false and scandalous, but others
eventually giving credence to the story. The leading Federalist political and
literary magazine of the day, Port Folio, published the following lines, "Supposed to have been written by the Sage of Monticello," to be sung to the tune
of "Yankee Doodle":